


Blue

by yosgay



Series: plein de couleurs [1]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: M/M, Unrequited Crush, rarepair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 13:06:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6855901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yosgay/pseuds/yosgay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The boy extends his hand warmly, and his effortless friendliness takes Yosuke back a little in its contrast to the rest of the damn student body. "Ichijo," he says, almost proudly. "Ichijo Kou, point guard." His smile is more genuine than Yosuke's seen in weeks, and as he takes his hand and introduces himself as "Hanamura Yosuke, shitty at sports," he gets a real laugh, and barely registers the way his shoulders start to relax just a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blue

Yosuke stares tiredly at the chipping walls as he walks through Yasogami High after the final bell, trying to get his bearings so that he doesn't get confused again. It's hard enough to navigate a new place without those little whispers and giggles from everyone who knows just how lost you are, and even worse is when you work up the courage to ask for directions and some asshole tells you to "make three lefts, and then take the elevator." He runs his fingertips along the wall lightly, feeling the thin paint job over uneven stucco, and they come away slightly dusty. 

He does his best to make out the room names and numbers, chipped though they are - it’s almost funny how much this place is falling apart. Art room, Science room, Drama room. Easy enough. He repeats them back to himself to commit them to memory, shifting his bag to the other shoulder and rubbing his neck lightly. The sign over the big doors at the end of the hall is marginally worse for wear, and he finds himself walking closer and squinting at the sign that says -

Yosuke reflexively jumps back and lands flat on his ass as the door flies open, nearly taking him out. He squeaks and starts to scramble to his feet, just as the blue-haired boy jogging through realizes his mistake and stops, mid-whistle, to yell "oh, shit" and drop his basketball unceremoniously to the side.

"Shit," he says again, but a little more amused this time, and grabs at Yosuke's arms to help him up. "My bad, dude! You okay?" 

After some awkward scrambling he yanks Yosuke up to his feet and claps him on the shoulder good-naturedly. "Sorry man, guess the hype from practice hasn't worn off, heh." He swipes the back of his hand over his forehead to move damp bangs out of his face. Yosuke makes himself blink.

"Nah, no, it's uh - it's no problem!" Yosuke stutters out a beat too late, willing the flush to leave his face. At least blue-hair is alone, and seems nice enough. He _really_ doesn't need to add some physical embarrassment to his growing list of social faux-pas since he's been here - his "new kid" novelty seems to have worn off pretty quickly.

The boy extends his hand warmly, and his effortless friendliness takes Yosuke back a little in its contrast to the rest of the damn student body. "Ichijo," he says, almost proudly. "Ichijo Kou, point guard." His smile is more genuine than Yosuke's seen in weeks, and as he takes his hand and introduces himself as "Hanamura Yosuke, shitty at sports," he gets a real laugh, and barely registers the way his shoulders start to relax just a little.

Kou goes to retrieve his basketball and tells Yosuke he'll catch him later, they should totally hang out sometime, that maybe he could teach him not to be so shitty at sports - Yosuke laughs, and sure, that would be cool, he’d like that - and for once, he's not just saying that.

\---

"I can't _believe_ you conned me into this," Yosuke grumbles, trying to undo the most intricate double-knot in the world from his sneakers after tying one of them way too tight. Kou apologizes for the hundredth time and feigns guilt, but his eyes are still shining, and Yosuke can't quite be as mad as he wants to be when he smiles like that. 

"Oh come on dude, it'll be fun! Their team and ours have the same record, but this time we've got our secret weapon," he nudges his elbow, and Yosuke snorts. 

"Yeah, I'll just hit their star player with a door before the game, and then we're in."

"Shut up," Kou says with a grin, and punches Yosuke's shoulder. 

He goes on and on about the other team’s defense and his strategy, and how badly he wants to beat these guys, smiling like a dork, excitement dripping. He's sitting close enough on the bench that their thighs keep brushing and Yosuke can smell his deodorant, along with a mask of sweat and pure adrenaline, and he tries not to breathe too deeply. 

The flip in his stomach is familiar, like before those big class presentations they had to do every week back in grade school, but for all his griping, it really is pretty exciting. When they're all done bullshitting, shoes tied and knuckles cracked, they head for the locker room door, still joking about how much ass they're gonna kick out there, despite Yosuke being a total rookie. They reach for the handle at the same time and their fingers brush a little, and they laugh about that too. Kou bumps his shoulder and gives him one last grin before he goes through the door, and Yosuke has to wait a beat to take a steadying breath before he follows.

\---

When they win, even though it's by a mile, even though it's just a regular-season game that doesn't matter much, Kou still jumps on Yosuke's back and screams and hollers as if it was the championship, and after he's done riding him around like a horse into battle, he  _insists_ that they celebrate. He drags Yosuke and Daisuke to Aiya, and orders three beef bowls, on him. They joke and jab at each other and Kou's face is like the sun, and Yosuke realizes that he's always been that bright, even after he's lost. 

Yosuke's wiping away tears from cracking up so hard, holding his sore stomach and breathing through hiccups from some stupid joke about balls, when Kou throws his arm around Daisuke's shoulders and his mouth goes dry, and something ugly blossoms inside his chest.

\--- 

“Oh fuck you man, that was so cheap!” Kou whines as his character respawns, attempting to poke Yosuke in the ribs with his toe while simultaneously keeping his fingers working the buttons of his controller. Yosuke’s trying to keep from laughing himself to death as Kou loses his balance and falls with his legs on Yosuke’s lap, controller bouncing halfway across the room.

“Gross, get your feet off me! They reek,” Yosuke says between giggles, trying to lean away and shoot accurately at the same time. Kou gives up on reaching for his controller, and instead wiggles his toes dramatically in front of Yosuke's face as he watches his idle character get shot and respawned over and over. Yosuke wrinkles his nose and tries to scoot away, swatting at Kou between shots. “ _Dude_ ,” he chokes out, “get some new shoes or something! You could take out the whole town if you walked around barefoot out there. This is a health hazard!” 

“Okay, that's it!” Kou yells, lunging at Yosuke, and the controller goes flying. “You’ve insulted my feet for the last time,” he says dramatically, and grabs Yosuke around the waist, dragging him backwards onto the floor. Yosuke’s almost crying from laughing so hard, pathetically swatting at Kou’s hands as they wrestle around, until he takes both of them and pins Yosuke to the floor.

“Okay, okay,” he wheezes, “I give!” 

“Nope, no way!” Kou smiles sly, squeezing his wrist just slightly. “I’ll let you up when you take it back.”

“I take it back, I promise,” he gasps out between another fit of giggles.

“Now admit that I have the best smelling feet in all of Japan.”

Kou’s hair hangs long in front of his face, and it takes Yosuke a second too long to realize that he’s straddling his waist, and that a few inches more, and his bangs would be tickling Yosuke’s forehead.

“You do,” Yosuke says with a smile not quite fit for the silliness of this situation, and Kou’s eyes flicker. A beat of silence passes, and Yosuke sees Kou’s throat move as he swallows.

“Hey, I -“

The doorbell rings.

Daisuke.

Kou’s eyes light up as he lets go of his hands and jumps up to go answer it, babbling about how he’s always late, but awesome, he’s finally here, now they can play a real game. The moment's gone, but he knows he didn't just imagine it. Yosuke doesn’t move from the ground for a second as he lets Kou get the door, still feeling the ghost of his weight pressed into his hips and wrists. The wind from the ceiling fan feels a degree’s difference colder on the places he let go, and when he sits up, his body feels too light.

\---

He tells himself that he’s not gonna be a downer, especially not with the first friends he’s made since moving here - but he doesn’t think Kou would even notice if he was. They’re inclusive enough, but it’s clear that they’ve been friends for a long time, have some deeper connection or something, and Yosuke can't help feeling like an outsider. 

But every time they hang out, he’s there. It’s like they’re a package deal, or something. It's no longer just the two of them, and Yosuke feels like the light is dimming. Daisuke's cool, he’s got nothing against him, but the more he comes around the less Kou's eyes shine at Yosuke, and the more they glow in the other direction. 

He beams at every word out of the kid’s mouth, and even if it’s kind of endearing on paper, it makes his stomach turn. It's slimy, and murky, and Yosuke recognizes it for what it is, even if he won't say it out loud. He still wonders what it would have felt like, and what it means that he still wonders. He thinks about Kou’s hair tickling his cheeks, and the abstractions of timing and coincidence play themselves around in his head during class lectures. If Daisuke had been even later, would they have stayed like that, Kou hovering over him, hands one shift of movement from being held? If he hadn’t shown up at all, would he have closed the distance completely? Is he really that lonely? His hands still feel cold, and the sun outside seems dimmer, somehow. He tugs on his hood to hide his headphones from Hosoi-Sensei, and rests his head against the hard wooden desk.

\---

He never actually joined the basketball team after that one game, but he still stops by practices sometimes to cheer them on. Kou’s smile is as bright as ever, and could probably provide power for several small towns, and Yosuke smiles back, laughing inwardly as he imagines a giant, shaggy, blue-haired windmill. He wants to stay until the end, to ask Kou to get some food and hang out for a little while, but he leaves with ten minutes left on the practice clock - the soccer team should be getting out soon too.

Even if it won’t exactly help him better his reputation, he finds himself picking up extra shifts at Junes, along with actually doing his homework, studying early for tests, going on late-night runs. At least he can sleep better when he’s exhausted, when his head doesn’t have a chance to start buzzing after he closes his eyes. During the school day he turns his attention to lame pick-up lines and short skirts, to green and red and long blonde curls, and looks the other way when Daisuke’s hand lingers a little too long on Kou’s back as he sees them leave the practice field one day.

Kou still waves to him in the hallways, walks with him to classes, texts him stupid funny pictures at all hours of the night - but he’s also a nice guy, who won’t give Yosuke shit about every excuse he throws around about being too busy to hang out. He can breathe a little easier in the distance, even if some mornings he has to scrub his brain clean of navy blue dreams that are both confusing, and not.

\---

When he hears rumors that the new transfer student starts today, he dares to get his hopes up a little - if this school does anything to this kid like it did to him, then at least he’ll have _someone_ to talk to. Someone who gets it. 

As he’s absentmindedly peddling to school, he sees him walking. Yosuke hasn’t been here very long, but he’s pretty sure there’s nobody else in this school with _that_ color hair, so it must be the new kid. At least, he thinks, _he’s_ finally not the new kid anymore. He rides on past, sparing a casual sidelong glance, and the boy looks up, catching his eye. He turns his head to follow Yosuke’s stare, pushing silver bangs away from his forehead. And when he smiles at Yosuke, Yosuke smiles back and the clouds part again - and this time the sun is almost blinding.

**Author's Note:**

> and that's the real reason why he drives his bike into a trash can


End file.
